July 1, 2010

"I felt certain that any, even the smallest complaint from him to the hotel, could also destroy my work reputation."...

"I finally told him and said, you're being a crazed sex poodle, hoping he'd realize how weird he was being, yet he persisted"...

So "crazed sex poodle" was an expression she directed at Gore, in an effort to prompt him to see himself in a different light and change what he was doing. Maybe he'd laugh and/or be embarrassed.

The woman said Gore's "Mr. Smiley Global Warming" persona differed from his actions and made her afraid....

After the alleged incident, the woman said she was dissuaded from contacting the police by liberal friends of hers, whom she refers to as "The Birkenstock Tribe," and of which she counts herself a member.

"It's like being the ultimate traitor," the woman said.

It's painful when your own hero falls. Quite aside from global warming, what about feminism? If the massage therapist's story is true, we are looking at the same problem we saw with Clinton. There are politicians who give the appearance of caring about the equality of women. It's a principle that, conceptually, is a necessary part of a political ideology they need to appear to hold. But maybe they don't really believe it at all. What a dirty secret, thinking that women exist to serve you!

ADDED: What makes a man treat a woman like that? Generally, I think it's because he's done things like that before, many times, and gotten away with it. We're talking about an older man, with a big reputation and a lot to lose. Why would he proceed in such a crude fashion? I would guess that his sensibilities have numbed over the years, as women acceded to his moves. The moves became less and less elaborate.

I've appreciated your statements on this subject over the years, Seems like it should be no big deal to point out the inconsistency, but for some people concepts like femenism, equal rights, tolerance are apparently just tools, shame on you for expecting a sincere effort.

"Why would he proceed in such a crude fashion? I would guess that his sensibilities have numbed over the years, as women acceded to his moves. The moves became less and less elaborate."

Seems highly likely, but . . .

a guy with Gore's celebrity and power could arrange--or have his people arrange--just about anything he wanted with women whose participation would be guaranteed and discretion reliable. So perhaps there was something about this process that turned him on or gave him internal moral cover.

I don't see this as necessarily a feminist issue. It's entirely possible that Gore thinks that all the little people are there simply to serve his needs. His needs from this woman just happened to be of a sexual nature.

... whom she refers to as "The Birkenstock Tribe," and of which she counts herself a member.

I'm no Gore fan, but the above quote seems fishy to me. I doubt that New Agers would refer to themselves as the "The Birkenstock Tribe". This is a derisive label used by outsiders to make fun of New Agers.

Also, the saving the "stain" bit seems contrived to bring up associations with Clinton/Lewinsky.

If I had to give odds on this, it be:60%: The woman is making it up20%: She is part of a plot to set Gore up20%: Gore is even slimier than I thought.

Al Gore has been a liar and a phony his whole career. He is nothing more than an overblown bloated fairy tale.

Unfortunately, people actually believe him or give him the benefit of the doubt. for some reason, this holds true of most major Dems- Clinton, Obama, and Hill Clinton come to mind. Lives created out of the whole cloth of fiction.

The story sounds fishy, but seeing as Al Gore is such a liar, I will give the victim the benefit of the doubt.

Someone at another site was speculating that perhaps Gore had been paying her off all this time, but then Tipper found out about it, left him, Gore turned off the spigot, and the lady decided it was time to make a stink about it.

George Grady said: I don't see this as necessarily a feminist issue. It's entirely possible that Gore thinks that all the little people are there simply to serve his needs. His needs from this woman just happened to be of a sexual nature.

I think that's probably true, but it shows the fundemental flaw in liberalism- elitism, special rights, and entitlement.

That said, the incident itself* may not be a feminist issue, but the "feminist" reaction to it definitely is. Real feminists would not excuse sexual assault.

* The incident as alleged; as Garage pointed out, it's still not clearly true. That said, the alleged reactions of so-called feminists are so clearly remenicent of their known reactions to Clinton's known bad acts that it is worth discussing again. It is important to keep reminding the world that "feminist" does not mean what they think it means.

Circle the wagon time for all the phony baloney "feminists". Maybe they'll do the right thing for the first time in a generation?

Alas, if defrauding the entire world in order to amass a filthy fortune wasn't enough to get Al Gore on the MSM shit list, I can't imagine an aborted tryst with Meredith from the Office is gonna do the trick.

I don't see this as necessarily a feminist issue. It's entirely possible that Gore thinks that all the little people are there simply to serve his needs

I agree. It is a "classism" issue. Gore is (at least in his own mind) upper class, entitled, superior to the lower class working people.

vw: impti what Gore's soul is like.

Those people exist to toil quietly in the background and not step out of their assigned places. This is why Joe the Plumber drew such vitriolic ire from the liberals. HOW DARE HE!! ask questions and expect answers. HOW DARE HE aspire to something higher and want to become an independent business owner. He must be crushed for stepping out of line.

The masseuse represents the lower class and as such she/we are not entitled to the same rights and considerations.

Gore is merely acting on the entitled liberalism that pervades the Democrat party. The little people, minorities and women especially, exist to provide votes and be trotted out and used as puppets in their political kabuki theatre shows about every 4 years or so. The rest of the time......shut up and massage my penis.

Great line sums up Gore and Clinton and Obama...YOU I hate, but I LOVE people...you know the Masses...I might treat you like Sh!te, but that's all good, because I care, about EVERYONE, even if not you.

The Birkenstock Tribe has had very little success getting any of their members into the final round of Survivor. Their best shot seemed to be filing a harassment suit against Richard Hatch for dropping trou and rubbing his second chakra up aginst one of the female tribal members on the path.

Sheepman, I have no problem seeing The Birkenstock Tribe self-reference that way. People are capable of mocking themselves, and do all the time. I first heard the term PC from liberals mocking their own over-sincerity. Don't bring a meat dish to the potluck! That wouldn't be PC. It was quite a few years before it became a critical term, devoid of humor.

I can't categorize men as liberal/conservative::feminist/non-feminist. My experiences with men have crossed all over the map, so I won't bother with that.

I agree with Althouse that this is the way people act when they're used to getting away with it. Power turns people into assholes, or power makes assholes even worse. If this account is true, I expect we'll hear some more folks come out of the woodwork.

I can't understand how Gore would be so inept. Was he obtuse and figured the concierge would just get it? It's very possible this just is not the kind of hotel that has a list of sex workers on call, and assumed this guy, this famous guy, wanted a massage, a straightforward amenity anyone can get at any nice hotel. If so, and Gore thought he could bully this woman into a happy ending, then that just confirms a lot of my class prejudices.

like what? let's all take a breath and first ascertain if this person is telling the truth or lying through her teeth...then move on but until that point is settle all the rest of the spit-up on here is just that.

In discussing this issue with acquaintances, I constantly encounter the idea that "Gore doesn't give off that kind of vibe" or some other version of "He doesn't seem like the type so this can't be true."

Hasn't the existence of the "well regarded/respected man" who gets away with beating the crap of the wife and kids for years dispelled this kind of thinking? It was the "regard/respect" that distracted folks in the first place! Are people that dumb that they can't grasp the existence of a public persona that is completely different from the private one?

"In discussing this issue with acquaintances, I constantly encounter the idea that "Gore doesn't give off that kind of vibe" or some other version of "He doesn't seem like the type so this can't be true.""

That's interesting, because he gives of exactly that kind of vibe to me.

Never forget The Living Redwood grew up as a child of privilege, with a family seat in the US Senate no different than the Girl Sandwich Twins, Teddy Kennedy and Christopher Dodd. Like them and Halo Joe Biden, he sees himself as a member of the ruling class, invoking le droit de seigneur as nobles did up until the French Revolution. That there were plenty of Leftist airheads willing to service him because he was going to stop the rise of the oceans and heal the planet just added to his sense of entitlement.

This is really a women's issue - the one about a woman being allowed to have a say in who is allowed to enjoy her sexually.

It's a feminist issue only insofar as, just like The Living Redwood's boss, the ones who made sure the slightest appearance of impropriety on the part of a Conservative or Republican insured him being driven from public life can be counted on to stay silent about this.

PS All of a sudden, our National Socialists believe in the concept of innocent until proven guilty.Kell Sir Prize.

While I am a conservative and scoff at the idea of anthropamorphic global warming, I will defend Gore. He was my congressman as a youth and my senator as a young man (if I have the dates right) and he did a decent job at both. He had an A rating from the NRA whil serving Tennessee.

Now once up there in Washington he changed, and not for the better from my perspective. But I have fond memories of Senator Al and it would not be fair of me to omit this perspective.

I must have missed David Vitter being driven from public life. Too bad! I'd have enjoyed that.

Last week Vitter had to fire one of his top aides. The guy had racked up two DWIs. Vitter didn't care for two years before that the guy also was up on charges of stalking his ex and holding her hostage with a knife to her throat. Gee, you'd think Vitter was a liberal! But no, and he's ahead of the Democrat challenging him for the Senate this year.

Generally, I think it's because he's done things like that before, many times, and gotten away with it.

Exactly. Men will be very careful the first few times. After awhile, if they dont get caught, they expend less and less energy on the deception, until everything catches up with them.

Making a pass at hotel staff is very risky. So I really doubt this is the first time Al has been a "crazed sex poodle". Look for more women to step up to claim this is a pattern of predatory behavior on the part of Gore.

Who knows?But let's see how this plays:1) No one knows if he's guilty, just keep your mouths shut....2) As the case progressses, it's not important, no one talking about it. Move on3) Whatever the denoument it will be unimportant, move on.

It's really all about moving on, UNLESS, this were Palin or Vitter or Gingrich....THEN we won't move on, because then it's IMPORTANT.

Gore's got his self-righteous @rse in a crack here...deal with it Jeremy. And go get your Mom those Menthol Lights she wants, would you?

I'm still waiting for the episode where they are innocent. Not that we should always assume guilt, but when such things are always denied and always true, you get a little tired of looking foolish defending them. Well, maybe you don't.

Now, Gore is certainly an asshole, and probably deranged. But I'm not buying any accusations of forcible assault.

She was in the hotel room long enough for him to pour a snifter of brandy, and yet she couldn't make it to the door?

He puts his tongue down her throat, and she calls him a "crazed sex poodle"? Isn't that too much of a cute, playful phrase to use in that situation, when you're trying to send the message "get off me or I'll call the cops"?

He's almost certainly guilty of being a crude, boorish asshole, but that's probably about all. Oh, that and trying to torpedo the world economy so that he can make a few billion dollars on green pixie dust and fairy tales.

You can make up all the excuses for Clinton's and Gore's behavior that you want to, the fact is that multiple sexual assaults on women indicates that they are despicable characters. I say this as a man who was once in a position to take advantage of a woman in a subordinate position and almost did so and have been haunted by what I almost did since. These men, who have assaulted women not once, which would be bad enough, but regularly, are thugs who deserve nothing but a jail cell, Clinton and Gore both.

I'll follow the story as it develops, but I'm willing to extend the benefit of the doubt to Al unless further developments collaborate her accusations. That being said, two other observations regarding the original post:

1. Absolute power corrupts absolutely (even if it's only a perception power, syncophants help to build up the illusion).

2. A significant proportion of guys will pursue sex utilizing all methods available until the costs of those methods become apparent (I was always amused by the head of security for a nuke plant I worked at who said if he had been younger he would have joined the demonstrators simply due to the number of good looking women in their contingent).

I wonder if Gore had a stroke, or is suffering from dementia, because he doesn't seem to have a track record of preying on women -- at least none has leaked out so far. Both dementia and brain injury can cause loss of inhibition.

We definitely need to understand Gore's attitude towards the people he has under his power , because Gore has been a part of the Global Governance cabal that has been working to bring down every strong nationstate and slip themselves into power over the Globe. They just spent 17 years trying to prove with Faked Science that the whole Globe is in desperate need of governance by them. IMO the Supreme Court now should extend the 2nd Amendment to permit ownership of military weapons such as the National Guard now has and is necessary for a militia. Interestingly, the cabal's need for AlGore tanked the day real scientists published findings that CO2 gas is innocent. That truth has now become accepted as the Globe has cooled for 10 years. The enemy cabal's leader is now The Lawless One who is running the USA into the ground every which way he can.

I know I get on the case of feminists a whole lot, how they go on and on about how terrible and oppressive America is when the fact of the matter, provable!, is that women can do and be anything they want to do or be and not only have equality in the legal system but preference in some situations... but here the comments are that it's not *reasonable* for a woman to worry about her job and livelihood. It's just an excuse!

It does make sense she'd try to pick up her things rather than leave them behind. She's self employed and replacements will come out of her own pocket. She can afford to say no to one client, but she can't afford to say no to them all if the hotel calls someone else, and can she risk that?

This is really *classic* issues for feminists, or it *was*.

Just like it used to be really important to feminists to stop the practice of using the steno-pool or nursing staff as a source of executive sexual perks.

As lyssa, I believe, said... We don't know for sure what really happened between this woman and Gore, but we do know exactly what arguments are being made by feminists, and that doesn't change no matter Gore's guilt or innocence. They are still saying what they are saying and defending the behavior they are defending.

I have been in a position of power over a multitude of women most of my professional life. It would have been easy to take advantage of it. The temptation is there. I've been single most of that time as well. I never even came close to doing something like this, ever. I've had massages without incident. I wouldn't even force myself on a prostitute. I'm an average citizen, not a leader, not deserving of awards or admiration, nothing.

It continues to amaze me what kind of people are at the front of our culture. People some consider leaders, people they pay to listen too, give Nobel Prizes and Academy Awards. Our highest honors go to these people. WTF?

Of course he is. What'd you think? He was crazy? (Shit, now I'm sounding all like Sarah Ferguson, talking about, "I feel sorry for her.")

Sheepman,

"I'm no Gore fan, but the above quote seems fishy to me. I doubt that New Agers would refer to themselves as the "The Birkenstock Tribe". This is a derisive label used by outsiders to make fun of New Agers."

Or the words of someone after they'd been betrayed by those "friends", and maybe, for the very first time, saw those friends' collective actions and statements for what they are - identifiers of NewAge cultism, tribalism, whatever you want to call it.

And, BTW, I now agree with Shannon Love and think Al Gore did it because he's a sex-crazed cultist with a bad iTunes collection.

Synova said: I know I get on the case of feminists a whole lot,... but [in the Double X article Beth linked] the comments are that it's not *reasonable* for a woman to worry about her job and livelihood. It's just an excuse!

I'm a big Slate fan, but virtually every time I've ever read Double X, I walk away completely horrified about the fate of humanity, and doubly so if I read the comments.

A few weeks ago, I got in a debate with an uber-liberal friend about misogyny being endemic in liberals- she immediantly pulled out the abortion card (well, she wouldn't actually say abortion- bunch of euphemisms about own body, of course).

My response was that I think it's awfully important to be treated as a human with individual rights, and to not have my career torpedoed because I dared to be an outspoken female, and not be thought of as having to act a certain way, as we have seen over and over again from dems. If that means that I have to exercise some personal responsibility over my sexuality, I'm more than happy to make that trade.

I think that middle of the road people are starting to see that abortion is not an excuse for all of the atrocities coming from the left, for which I am grateful.

I must have missed David Vitter being driven from public life. Too bad! I'd have enjoyed that.

You forget Vitter is from Loosiana, the state where the governor brags, "Th' only way they gonna git me is ketch me in bed with a dead girl o' live boy", and Stormy Daniels is the challenger in the Senate primary.

Dead Julius: "Wait a sec... haven't we been here before? And didn't you conservatives decide back then that the accusations of the woman in a situation like this should be discounted unless there is concrete proof?"

Actually, no. We decided to adopt the nuanced ad hominem tactics of the left and listen to the whines.

"This is starting to turn into a high-tech lynching. After all, it's just he-said, she said; and the timing-- the delayed reporting and delayed investigation-- is quite suspec.."

She's got the spooge on her clothes in a bag. Why do you think the police had to reopen the case?The girl learned from Lewinsky above preserving evidence otherwise it would be a scenario just as you described.

Larry Craig made it difficult for airport customers to poop with an unclouded mind, while Al Gore has made it difficult for hotel patrons to get a masseuse to come to their room.

Good point. Sure the womon was SEXUALLY ASSAULTED, but hey it only inconvenienced HER….Sure you were mugged/raped/burglarized but only YOU were inconvenienced and as long as what happened to YOU doesn’t affect ME, it’s all good.

Synova, I see class here, as I did with Paula Jones - feminists, like other groups, divide along class lines sometimes, and I often find myself wrangling with people - feminist or not - who don't know what it's like to have to calculate, on your feet, what you might lose in any given situation. People can make bad decisions because they've got other stakes on the table.

The Portland massage therapist testifies: [Gore] spoke about acts that he had seen in pornographic films involving such matters as women having sex with animals and films showing group sex or rape scenes....On several occasions, [Gore] told me graphically of his own sexual prowess....[Gore] was drinking a Coke in his office, he got up from the table at which we were working, went over to his desk to get the Coke, looked at the can and asked, "Who has put pubic hair on my Coke?"

garage mahal said... So that settles it. Guilty.==================By the Alinskyite rules of demonizing your opponent, yes.The Democrats do it all the time - Anita Hill, The John Tower matter, the Sen Packard matter, Tom Foley, Larry Craig, Terry Sanford, a bunch of conservative religious leaders.

The DEms do it all the time. So when the truth and justice becomes less relevant than the opportunity to demonize and take away power from a political enemy - under "New Rules" - Many Reps have learned and are now playing the vicious game the Democrat Left started.

DEms brag they have full time oppo research trying to dig up dirt on the opposition - plus have a media of liberals and progressive Jews ready to pounce on a Vitter, but give John Edwards a total pass.

IMO, this is he said, she said..with the women involved someone with a college degree in creative journalism, charged 540 dollars, stayed 3 hours over brandy snifters and chocolate...never bolted when she could have left at any moment. Refused to file a police complaint, tried hitting up 1st Algore for a million in hush money and then Nat Equirer a mil plus expenses to sell her Tale of Ordeal.

Bottom line - the Dems miss no Alinskyite opportunity to smear and discredit the enemy. Truth is irrelevant. Liberals and progressive Jews that run and own MSM are eager to join the battle to destroy the oppo with Agitprop - AND at the same time act as shields for "our sides" sleazeballs like John Edwards, Barney Franks, Hugo CHavez, sexually out of control liberal gays in the media and politics.Reps and conservatives, seeing the old Jewish socialist radical Saul was on to an effective strategy after decades of being it's victims - are demonizing back.

First, let's be clear that we don't know yet if Al Gore is guilty or not, and no matter who was assumed guilty on far less evidence, of something not nearly as bad, ought not to enter.

Secondly, it seems that if you have the right opinions on "women's issues" you can treat actual women as basely as you want, and progressives will make excuses for you. MANY examples come to mind. Have we forgotten Nina Burleigh, saying that women should line up "with presidential kneepads on" to fellate Bill Clinton for "keeping abortion legal"? Progressives are really okay with that logic?

Screwtape approves wholeheartedly:

Do what you will, there is going to be some benevolence, as well as some malice, in your patient's soul. The great thing is to direct the malice to his immediate neighbours whom he meets every day and to thrust his benevolence out to the remote circumference, to people he does not know. The malice thus becomes wholly real and the benevolence largely imaginary. There is no good at all in inflaming his hatred of Germans if, at the same time, a pernicious habit of charity is growing up between him and his mother, his employer, and the man he meets in the train. Think of your man as a series of concentric circles, his will being the innermost, his intellect coming next, and finally his fantasy. You can hardly hope, at once, to exclude from all the circles everything that smells of the Enemy: but you must keep on shoving all the virtues outward till they are finally located in the circle of fantasy, and all the desirable qualities inward into the Will. It is only in so far as they reach the will and are there embodied in habits that the virtues are really fatal to us. (I don't, of course, mean what the patient mistakes for his will, the conscious fume and fret of resolutions and clenched teeth, but the real centre, what the Enemy calls the Heart.) All sorts of virtues painted in the fantasy or approved by the intellect or even, in some measure, loved and admired, will not keep a man from our Father's house: indeed they may make him more amusing when he gets there.

Whose film an “Inconvenient Truth” is busy indoctrinating a generation of school kids that we are all gonna and the Polar Bears, drown, UNLESS we buy his carbon credits! Who’s busy telling ME what to drive, how to travel, and how to live my life….whilst he lives large.

I believe Sarah Palin is a “private citizen,” too, but somehow it seems OK for someone to move in next door to her and her family to write a book about her.

That he and his type have been bullshitting liberal women and that liberal women have helped his kind do the abuse, degrade women and then cover for him is the issue.

Wise up girls.

No one sees the greater picture here. The accusers friends 'The Birkenstock Tribe' dissuaded her from going after her attacker. Women collectively told another attacked woman not to go after Al Gore, because they didn't see him as flawed or that he may have been incapable of doing it or even that they thought she was lying, but rather that these useful idiots were afraid of seeing their ideological messenger boy go down in flames and his Gaiaist nonsense go with him. These fools were willing to throw their own under the bus to save their larger, grander scheme of foisting nonsense on the rest of the world. I guess one mans 2nd chakra is a masseuses worst nightmare now.

Joe - "Sure the womon was SEXUALLY ASSAULTED, but hey it only inconvenienced HER….Sure you were mugged/raped/burglarized but only YOU were inconvenienced and as long as what happened to YOU doesn’t affect ME, it’s all good.

That’s an interesting jurisprudence you got there FLS."------------

I'll side with FLS on this one. Joe makes the assumption that the anonymous accuser, being a womyn, must be telling the truth. Because womyn never lie. Joe presumes guilt quicker than you can say "Duke Lacrosse".

We do know this women charged 540 dollars for a massage. Stayed rather than walked out. Is a degreed journalist who told a very detailed story. Refused to press charges. Tried shaking down Noble Algore for bucks, then peddled her tale for bucks.Gore denies all.We know nothing about this woman's past or if she has had other legal or financial difficulties.

But for now, it is fun to bash that sanctimonious sleazebag Gore. Because Clarence Thomas was given a high tech lynching by Gore and his crowd over even less evidence by a sleazebag lady still adulated by the Left, given a tenured sinecure and Chair after her lies were exposed.It is also politically desirable to take down the guy whose Green scam threatens to put the US in economic Depression.

(A Somewhat Different Joe)How can we ever trust a man who is unable to hire assistants to procure the right kind of whores?People have asked that question here, before. My hometown, smallish Mid-Western/Southern has almost a PAGE of “escort services” in the ‘phone book. Did Gore and his staff not realize? I just don’t know….

And then there’s this. Sure you can hire a professional sex worker/prostitute, and she may leave…BUT SHE AIN’T GONNA FORGET. An’ sure as shoot’n when she or her madam get into trouble, their gonna remember some of their most famous clients! Ask Eliot Spitzer. What was he think’n?!?! Laurie David is a better bet over some womon you hire…that’s personal, not business and she has something to lose if it comes out, so to speak, but even IF this “masseuse” was a “pro” it just doesn’t make any sense to use her. It WILL bite you on the @rse, sooner or later.

For the record and I've said this before that I find this story fishy and isn't passing my smell test. I'd be the first one in line to condemn manbearpig for his 'transgressions' but at this point, I don't believe the story at all. There may be some facets that might be true. He may have asked her to relieve his 2nd chakra, but a physical attack? Highly doubtful. I hope I'm wrong since there would be nothing better than to see manbearpig completely and totally discredited.

I don't get it. He's pro choice. He must be a feminist, and couldn't possibly have done this. Even if he did it's OK because he is pro choice and would have put pro choice justices on the Supreme Court if he hadn't had the election stolen in 2000.

I'll side with FLS on this one. Joe makes the assumption that the anonymous accuser, being a womyn, must be telling the truth. Because womyn never lie. Joe presumes guilt quicker than you can say "Duke Lacrosse".

Pondering all the Juice Cons-Piracies must have slowed your thinking C4…..My point wasn’t that womyn don’t lie, my POINT WAS that FLS has an interesting jurisprudence theory….that so long as the PUBLIC is not inconvenienced, there is no crime or at least no need to investigate! Really C4 it sought to have been obvious, you must have been poring over the Protocols of the Elders of Zion, in the original Russian, and missed what I was saying.

So I’ll repeat it, it seems that IF you get mugged as long as NOONE ELSE was inconvenienced, then, according to FLS, we needn’t worry our official heads about it. So when the JDL moves next door to you and delivers a powerful blow to your Jooooo-hatin’ noggin’ so long as no one else is bothered, the Poh-Leece need not worry. Now, put into terms and conditions you might be familiar with, does that jurisprudence sound reasonable, to you?

What makes a man treat a woman like that? Generally, I think it's because he's done things like that before, many times, and gotten away with it. We're talking about an older man, with a big reputation and a lot to lose. Why would he proceed in such a crude fashion? I would guess that his sensibilities have numbed over the years, as women acceded to his moves. The moves became less and less elaborate.

Right on your first try, Professor! You don't even need your remaining two guesses.

Joe -- I was trying to distinguish the Larry Craig case from the Al Gore case. The different impact each had on innocent third parties seemed significant. Any additional distinctions between the two cases are welcome.

Further, if you consider the different effects on the victims to be more important, I won't try to persuade you otherwise.

Try as you may, no one has convicted The Living Redwood just yet. There are details that make this woman's charges credible - including Tipper's actions, as well as the thing with Laurie David. Few people, if any, have said he did it. That's not what has put a smile on so many faces.

Everybody loves this because the schaudenfreude is so deep you can surf on it.

The only thing better, to paraphrase several here, would be to see the former Serial Rapist in Chief frog marched in handcuffs to Federal prison for a term of five to ten.

"No one sees the greater picture here. The accusers friends 'The Birkenstock Tribe' dissuaded her from going after her attacker. Women collectively told another attacked woman not to go after Al Gore, because they didn't see him as flawed or that he may have been incapable of doing it or even that they thought she was lying, but rather that these useful idiots were afraid of seeing their ideological messenger boy go down in flames and his Gaiaist nonsense go with him. These fools were willing to throw their own under the bus..."

Further, if you consider the different effects on the victims to be more important, I won't try to persuade you otherwise.

Reading comprehension off today, for the third time…I find your theory interesting. Are you suggesting a “crime” that affects other people, such as potential users of the Men’s Restroom, is somehow more heinous that a crime that merely affects ONE person? You know like burglary or rape or sexual assault? Only your house got burglarized or you got raped or fondled, so why should WE care? That would seem to be the clear implication of your statement.

“Wow, Zelda, sorry your husband Fitzgerald Kennedy was shot, but as it only really affects you, we’re not too interested.” And then,“Oh Jacqueline, we’ll get right on the shooting of YOUR husband, John, because his death affects us ALL.”

How many people are affected by a Breach of the King’s Peace is not a relevant factor in discussing whether such a Breach occurred.

I don't believe the bigger picture. I think feminists gave Clinton a pass because they could picture themselves fooling around with him, not because of his politics.REALLY, Gore’s a Pillsbury guy, but Mr. Comfy Jeans is a Sex Symbol? But, Limbaugh, might agree with you, which may cause you pain, but he did call many Female Clintonista’s “The Arousal Gappers” so mayhap you are onto something.

No, I'm pointing out that Thomas put himself up for public scrutiny via the Senate confirmation process, so there was a good reason to take the allegations of misconduct that were made against him more seriously than if similar allegations were made against a private citizen, no matter how culturally significant that private citizen is.

But of course the allegations of attempted rape being made against Gore are more serious than anything Anita Hill claimed about Thomas.

I am a conservative. I am also the son of a woman who kept on working "after the boys came home" from WW2. a woman who had to work for a chucklehead because a woman was not allowed to be a chief clerk for the railroad back in the '50s and early '60s. So, I absorbed equity feminism with my mother's milk.

We need to quit calling the women who tried to confemn Monica and Linda Tripp, Paula Jones and the rest of that crowd (and crowd it was) feminists. Same with the Gore accuser. I have no idea yet if she is telliing the truth. I suspect she well may be simply because of the pants. After all, if the DNA proves the lie, Portland will be untenable for her. Even with the DNA proving it, she is supposed to just take one for the team. I would call 'em "progressives" but they seem to want to progress to Stalin's Soviet Union or Mao's China.

What must it be like to know that legions of Birkenstockers have got your back, even if you do something really dreadful? People whose lives are dedicated to peace, non-violence, respect for diversity, doing no harm and so on will abandon all of that and go full-Mafia if you are threatened with disclosure of your problematic tendencies. This is the new nomenklatura -- heroes of politics and the culture who are cherished for their advocacy of strict rules of conduct for most citizens, so cherished in fact that they don't have to pay any attention to the rules in their own lives.

The reaction to these allegations isn't the first time Gore has been the beneficiary. Outside of right-wing blogs, has anybody ever commented on Gore's massive consumption of energy for his personal dwellings? Or his use of private jets with their immense carbon output and fuel consumption? No, because he's given an absolute pass.

The story as told suggests that Mr. Gore may have a medical condition (or a puppy's sensitivity). Both of which have been treatable for decades.

One of my daughters mentioned that the ladies in her office were arguing that if they were Ms. Gore and their man had this issue for decades - and refused to see a doctor - they'd have left their husband long ago.

While I am a conservative and scoff at the idea of anthropamorphic global warming, I will defend Gore. He was my congressman as a youth and my senator as a young man (if I have the dates right) and he did a decent job at both. He had an A rating from the NRA whil serving Tennessee.

Now once up there in Washington he changed, and not for the better from my perspective.

Washington changes a lot of people, and often not for the better. So let's pause for a moment here and think about a solution to this problem.

Here's mine. It's a little unorthodox, but bear with me for a second: We should require members of Congress to spend a lot less time in Washington, instead requiring them to be in their home districts for about 75-80% of the year.

How would that work? By using today's technology--teleconferencing and the like. Most of the "work" of Congress gets done in their offices anyway, and there's no reason that office can't be at home, where they can stay close to their constituents and actually, oh, listen to their opinions on the things that are about to come up for a vote. Committee meetings, caucusing--even minor votes like naming a building after someone--can all be done by tele- or video conferencing, and everyone would only have to show up in Washington for really important votes such as spending bills.

Just think of all the advantages of this:

1) Congresscritters wouldn't have to maintain two households like they do now; they'd live in their own houses most of the year, and then stay in small apartments or hotels for their brief time in Washington. (The "carbon footprint" of flying back and forth would also be significantly lessened.)

2) It would be very difficult for lobbyists to get to all of them on a regular basis if they're spread out around the country. (And it would waste lobbyists' time and money to try, which I consider to be a feature, not a bug.)

3) The best part would be that they would likely be kept much more grounded by having to live in the regular world, among the people they are supposedly serving, rather than in the toxic bubble of Washington.

Sorry for the slight threadjack, but this is definitely an idea worth considering the next time someone wants to do a major overhaul of our federal government. (Term limits for both Congress and bureaucrats wouldn't hurt, either.)

And what made me think of it was Trey's post quoted above. I've been so disgusted by Gore over the years that it almost never occurred to me that he might have been a good guy at one time. And if Washington really is what does that to people, then it's time to keep them away from there as much as possible.

Notwithstanding the rest of Ann's paragraph, the sentence partially quoted by HDH does not implicate Gore.

The rest of the paragraph, read with charity to all parties, do not implicate Gore, though a case might me made that the text insinuates.

@HDH: In fairness, you should have included the question mark in the quote.

--

(I try to distinguish between insinuations suggested by a text and insinuations intended by it's author, and my default is not to conclude the latter from the former. Heaven knows I have written things with phrasing that inadvertently suggested things beyond by intent. Sometimes it is a result of haste. But occasionally it is because I presume too much regarding my audience's intention to read me with charity.)

"""the fact is that multiple sexual assaults on women indicates that they are despicable characters."""

@ricpic:

I think your general indication is correct -- but are you convinced that Gore did, as a matter of fact, commit "multiple sexual assaults" against anyone?

Because you segue from the general indication to a suggestion (I refrain from calling it an assertion) that he did, and so richly deserves the censure you seem to lavish. And I am not saying that he is innocent, or that he deserves anything less that what you dish out.

Hwever: The proximity of your (quite reasonable) word "fact" to what you suggest below, might lead the mind of your readers to receive your suggestions as fact, in an uncritical way. If so, I don't know whether or not this was your intent.